ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS – A sprawling apartment complex in Atlantic Highlands has been purchased by Kushner Real Estate Group (KRE), an organization owned by Murray and Jonathan Kushner, relatives of President Donald Trump’s senior advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Formerly known as Thousand Oaks Village, the 304 apartment units and approximately 35.4 acres of land have been renamed Atlantic Pointe Apartments.

A 2018 tax assessment valued the property and its buildings at $29.1 million, but KRE finalized a deal July 19 to purchase the Navesink neighborhood for $56 million.

“The seller recognized the market conditions were right to sell Thousand Oaks Village, a highly visible, well-maintained, Class-B multi-family asset in close proximity to regional employment hubs and upscale residential/commercial/retail centers,” said Ken Uranowitz, the president of Gebroe-Hammer Associates and a member of the brokerage team that helped facilitate the sale.

In a phone interview Tuesday with The Two River Times, KRE’s director of acquisitions, Darin Raiken, said his firm’s only relationship to Jared Kushner is familial ties and that KRE is not involved in a pair of recent lawsuits launched against Kushner Companies – a separate real estate development company – by former and current tenants of a Brooklyn apartment complex and another rental building in Maryland.

“We have no ties to Kushner Companies. We are entirely different organizations. It’s just shared family. But there is no crossover in management or ownership. We have no business or financial ties,” Raiken said.

Some in the community were less concerned about political affiliations and more focused on possible rent hikes.

The 304-unit apartment complex will now be known as Atlantic Pointe Apartments. Photo by Chris Rotolo

“I may not agree with Trump on everything but that really has nothing to do with what’s going on here,” resident Christie Convery said. “In this situation, what matters most to me is that rent stays the same and that our community stays together.”

Raiken was adamant that any monthly rent increases would be in alignment with local ordinances and state laws, including Atlantic Highlands’ rent control ordinance, which ensures that a landlord may only apply a maximum annual increase of 1.5 percent to a tenant’s base rent, or impose a hike that aligns with the percentage increase of the United States Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index (CPI), whichever figure is higher. Borough Administrator Adam Hubeny said the borough adopted the ordinance to protect residents from excessive increases in monthly payments.

Raiken spoke of his company’s plans to make interior upgrades to vacant apartments and exterior upgrades to each of the 20 apartment buildings at the complex, including new roofing and siding.

“We want to improve our tenants’ quality of life, which is why we’re planning improvements to parking lots and amenities on site, including improvements to the community pool, improvements to the tennis courts that are in a dilapidated condition and an upgraded playground site with picnic tables and benches,” Raiken said.

Available one-bedroom apartments range from $1,125 to $1,580 per month, while two-bedrooms start at $1,710. Three-bedroom dwellings with two full bathrooms are starting at $1,660 and be as large as 1,200 square feet.

Thousand Oaks Village was built in 1981 and renovated in 1999. Rebranded as Atlantic Pointe Apartments, the complex is comprised of 20 two-story buildings with 196 one-bedroom apartments, 48 two-bedroom apartments and 60 three-bedroom townhome-style units.

This article was first published in the July 26- Aug. 2, 2018 print edition of The Two River Times.